Star Wars

Nimblebit knows how to make iOS games. The success of Tiny Tower and Pocket Planes is proof of that. The small developer’s games feature charming details with its 8-bit style art and extra features. Those elements help make the title so fiendishly addicting.

With that said, I’m excited to check out the team’s first licensed-based gameTiny Death Star. It comes out today on iOS, Android and Windows Phone devices. The game basically takes the gameplay elements of Tiny Tower deploys it in the Star Wars universe.

The force is strong with Carrie Fisher, not to mention Berkeley Rep, these days. Tony Taccone’s smartly directed production of Fisher’s autobio tour-de-farce is winning raves in its New York debut. AP says the “Star Wars icon, manic-depressive, alcoholic and astute observer of the Hollywood scene… is a raconteur in the best sense of the word.” The New York Times dubs it “hilarious, ” a “brut-dry, deeply funny memoir.” So if you missed your chance to cross over to the dark side when the show held court at the Rep, at least you can still catch it in Gotham.

Long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away, Carrie Fisher honed her solo tour-de-farce “Wishful Drinking” at Berkeley Rep before taking it on tour around the country. Now everybody’s fave princess is headed back to Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre on her last stop before the comedy warps onto Broadway. Directed by Tony Taccone, this very limited run – 15 performances – starts July 9 and goes through July 23. So if you live for classic scifi ’70s kitsch (even as I do), may the force be with you. Otherwise, you might sooner kiss a Wookie!

Use the force, Leia! Carrie Fisher’s tour-de-farce “Wishful Drinking,” which debuted atBerkeley Rep last year before warping across the country spewing snark is finally headed to the Great White Way (which in some circles qualifies as the dark side, no?) this fall. Rep honcho Tony Taccone directs this kitschapalooza red-carpet tell-all in the manner of “Postcards from the Edge,” which opens at Studio 54 in October. This one woman wisecrack machine plunges us into the maelstrom of life as the daughter of celebs (Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, natch), ex-wife of pop stars and, of course, Princess Leia, the it-chick of the original “Star Wars” trilogy. Fisher unleashes her light-saber sharp wit on everything from coping with booze, pills and depression, wedding (and later shedding) Paul Simon and coming to terms with that iconic cinnabun hairdo. Yikes! Oh, and did we mention the Princess Leia sex doll? The one with the metallic bikini? Nuff said. If you spent way, way too much playing with your “Stars Wars” action figures as a child (it’s not just me, right?) then you won’t want to miss this theatrical guilty pleasure. And if you don’t know Yoda from Yogi Berra, why are you even wasting time reading this?!?

The game has now been moved to another team — Rebellion. Things to note in this video: a possible force-wielding kung fu master; ewok carnage; lightsaber fights; awesome detail with the ships. And of course, there’s the cheering crowd at the end of all things Star Wars. It kind of makes you sad for what could have been.

Pros: The graphics are great, not just by Wii standards but in general, it really captures the look of the show.Â As a simple fighting game it’s a lot of fun, for a while at least.Â And it’s better than Masters of Teras Kasi.

Cons: It doesn’t have much depth, both in the amount of gameplay and in the controls.Â Most of all it will give you carpal tunnel syndrome.

Verdict: It should probably just be a rental, if only for medical reasons.

Like a kid during Christmas, I woke up today and turned on my PlayStation 3 to find that — hurray — the LittleBigPlanet servers are on. I immediately published my level — lbp star wars — and explored some other new creations.

Ah at last, LittleBigPlanet is complete. I can’t wait to play some of your creations, guys and gals. Look me up. I’m listguy.

And if you need a little help, I’ll be writing up a top 10 mistakes to avoid when creating your LittleBigPlanet levels. Also, MediaMolecule is creating a hub site for players to show off their creations and give tips to players on the Web. It’s going to be called LittleBigWorkshop. (Unfortunately, it’s locked right now.)

That’s right, a new Star Wars MMO. And it’s called Star Wars: The Old Republic. That’s right, it’s set during the same era as the Knights of the Old Republic series.

The amount of information released is staggering, so here are the highlights:

The story is absolutely massive. According to the developers, there are no simple “Collect X items by killing monsters.” quests, everything has a purpose that advances the story. And on top of that each class has its own complete story…you could play through twice and never see the same quests twice.

While you do choose Jedi or Sith, you aren’t choosing good or evil right away; Jedi aren’t necessarily good and Sith aren’t necessarily bad. There is a stigma to being Sith, but in the KOTOR tradition it’s the decisions you make that change your alignment, not an arbitrary selection at the start of the game.

The game explains the origins of the Sith for those of us who never read the EU novels. The short version is that it was founded by exiled Dark Jedi who subjugated a race called the Sith, intermarried and founded the Jedi’s counterpart. During the game they have an uneasy truce with the Jedi with their own areas, which is an MMO standard.

There will be very little instancing. It won’t be like WoW where everyone has a chance to line up and kill some epic evil, once an epic evil is dead it’s dead. It goes back to the importance of story.

There’s more of course but those are the “Why isn’t this just Galaxies again?” highlights. It really does sound different than previous MMOs in several fundamental ways, it addresses many problems I have with the genre and, given the combined pedigree of LucasArts, BioWare and the Star Wars name, it’s the first real contender to be the next big MMO, following in the steps of Ultima Online, Everquest and World of Warcraft.

In the not-surprising department, NamcoBandai announced that Soulcalibur IV will be getting new downloadable content. As for what it is, it’s nothing that you haven’t played already. Darth Vader and Yoda are now available for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Apparently, the magic character exclusivity apparatus has gone down.

Now, players are free to have their dream matchup: Yoda vs. Vader. We all know how this is going to end. Vader is going to punt Yoda all over the map.

Anyway, the DLC will be available Oct. 23. on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network for 400 Microsoft Points and $4.99, respectively.